I've been given a laptop that came with Windows 7 and that I made dual boot with Mint 14. (Owner likes iPads better)

I don't need another laptop and intend to gift it to a family member. Before doing so need to remove the original owner as the Win 7 administrator. I have her original account names and passwords so no hacking is neccessary. Just want to remove them as others have no need to know her credentials.

Since many of you are skilled in multiple systems might someone point me to a simple solution?

I would just create a new "dummy" account and make sure it is also an administrator with no password. Reboot and log into the new "dummy" account and from the same place you created the new account you can delete the original owner's account, making sure to remove all files. When you give the PC to the next owner they would need to do the same only login with the "dummy" account and create their new account making sure to make themselves an administrator. They can then remove the "dummy" account.

The instructions suggested Windows XP or better, so I installed Linux :)

OK Guess it just comes down to creating a new account with administrator privileges then deleting the original. My concern was maybe somehow that would mess up being able to do updates. Looks like something I didn't need to worry about.